New Delhi: A video of an iPhone igniting a ring of steel wool placed around it when a call is received has been widely shared on social media in the past couple of days.
The video was first shared on 27 December 2019 by YouTube channel Viral Video Lab. It had received 811,850 views till the filing of this report.
The caption that goes with the clip reads: “Please share the video before it gets deleted! I don’t know the reason why the incoming call caused the steel wool to ignite. If you have deeper knowledge in physics, maybe you can write an explanation in the comments…”
It also goes on to say: “We used an iPhone 6 for this experiment. The ‘power save’ option was set off. We used steel wool grade 12. The wood table plate (is about 2 inches thick). There was no coil under / within the table”.
The video was subsequently shared on Facebook and other social media platforms, liked and retweeted by users thousands of times.
One Facebook share reads: “Every smartphone has to produce heavy radiation. Don’t keep it near your head. This is good awareness (for) everyone.” The post has been shared by as many as 15,000 people.
WATCH WITHOUT MISSING…. Every Smart phone has to produce heavy radiation. Don't keep it near head on our Bed. This is good Awareness to everyone……
Elangovan Annamalai यांनी वर पोस्ट केले सोमवार, १३ जानेवारी, २०२०
A Twitter post sharing the clip has been similarly retweeted 10,000 times. The post also blames 5G for this phenomenon.
https://twitter.com/ItsNotRevenge/status/1217213136073363457?s=20
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Fact check
The claim that an iPhone’s radiation was able to light the ring of steel wool placed around it has, however, been found to be false. And this can be debunked without a “deeper knowledge in physics”.
The flames in the video have been found to be generated by digital effects. The steel wool never actually burns. It is the result of a digital editing tool, something that can be understood during a frame change at a particular time when one slows down the clip.
Another reason why this video editing was easily spotted was that the steel wool catches fire all at once as opposed to the flame beginning at a particular spot and then spreading. Some have even claimed that the coil catches fire due to a 9V battery attached under the table.
Experimental videos can be found on the web, proving iPhones don’t set steel wool on fire because of an incoming call.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.
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